Music therapy, in tuning at the end of life

In this article music therapy is presented as a helpful tool to support the persons (and their relatives) living at the end of their life and, also, as a non pharmacological and complementary therapy in an integral and holistic medicine. What we report here comes from the direct experience, nourished after many years of interventions and reflections in oncology and palliative care units. We’re talking about silence, music, therapy, models and techniques. We will read and feel therapeutic sessions… but above all, we’re talking about life, conscience and love.

Los ungüentarios de alabastro en el Mediterráneo. Primer Milenio a. C.

A partir del hallazgo de un tipo particular de envases: ungüentarios y perfumarios en una nueva tumba en el territorio de Arados/Amrit, observamos cómo se incrementa la presencia de estos envases en tumbas de incineración e inhumación durante el primer milenio antes de Cristo en la cuenca mediterránea. Hemos elaborado una serie de análisis y discusiones sobre su distribución, cronología, significado y uso social, tratando de establecer una periodización de sus usos y una contextualización cultural y social dentro del ritual funerario y del uso de determinadas materias primas empleadas para su elaboración.

La praxis dans le Marx de Michel Henry

Si le Marx de Michel Henry reconduit plusieurs thèses développées dans les écrits antérieurs et anticipe celles de « la trilogie » sur le christianisme, le dialogue qu’il instaure autour du thème de la praxis lui confère un statut singulier dans l’ensemble de l’oeuvre. Parce que Marx attribue à la pratique de l’individu et aux rapports réels entre les pratiques le pouvoir de créer les idéalités, notamment celle de la valeur, Henry est lui-même conduit à déplacer le champ d’immanence qu’il avait jusque-là situé du côté de l’ego et du corps vers la pratique et le système du travail vivant aux prises avec le monde objectif. Or du point de vue d’une phénoménologie matérielle, pour autant qu’il renvoie à un point de vue extérieur à la stricte immanence, le seul usage de la notion d’« individu » manifeste déjà une prise en compte de « la transcendance », poussant Henry à suspendre pour une part l’approche phénoménologique. Même si l’acosmisme de L’essence de la manifestation transparait encore dans le Marx, il est mis en tension extrême avec le monde des déterminations sociales et économiques et contraint l’auteur à développer la thèse de l’enracinement de ces déterminations dans l’immanence de la vie et de la praxis. C’est en même temps ce qui fait la force et l’originalité de la lecture henryenne de Marx. D’un autre côté, quand bien même elle hérite d’une éthique de la praxis, la trilogie semble perdre de vue la stricte individualité de la praxis qui apparaît dans le Marx. C’est ainsi que le concept de Vie Absolue qu’elle promeut est associé à une exigence d’universel que Henry avait préalablement disqualifiée, notamment à travers sa critique de Hegel. La thèse qu’on va lire cherche ainsi à rendre compte de l’originalité absolue du Marx dans l’oeuvre du phénoménologue français.

Warunki wstępne interpretacji doświadczenia religijnego. Pomiędzy »logos spermatikos« a »qehal el«

Nowadays we observe social transformations that have no counterparts in previous ages. Social dependences are expressed in forms that change and increase with unprecedented intensity. Human beings in their individual experience, particularly religious, realize themselves through dynamic relations to the surrounding world, other people and God. People desire a deepened interpretation what they experience. In this article I seek research tools which can help investigations in the area of fundamental theology which is expected to transform or translate individual experience in a rational way into an objective interpretative pattern. We seek such models of reality, which will ground theological investigations in the social relation of an individual person to world [in general] and to transcendence. Two investigative categories from the Christian tradition are accepted in the article: logos spermatikos and assembly of God – qehal which especially take into account the salvific perspective of the history of creation. These notions allow us to describe phenomena not only as static; they also allow us to interpret dynamic relations underway in our time. In the accepted investigative model (model 2) both the beginning and the aim of creation are qualified as dynamic realities. They influence and react to everything that happens in creation. We should therefore interpret the precondition of individual religious experience as dynamic. This will let us describe the .transient relations. as a basis in these investigations. Such an approach will prevent us from deprecating individuality in favor of the community, or the reverse.

The telescopic eye: aqua optica

The Telescopic Eye: Aqua Optica was an installation work which explores concepts and philosophies related to instrumental, lens based observations of heavens as experienced when seeing through a telescope. In particular it considers how the eye of the observer and the lens of the telescope must act in unison to extend both the perception and conception of that which is remote and beyond direct naked eye sensing - an act of transcendence. A series of projected images (the video) of celestial objects are observed by the viewer through a large spherical aquatic lens which is mounted on a large wooden tripod. These images slowly dissolve and morph into each other. The sequence in which these images are presented is based on approximate chronological order in which these celestial objects were historically observed through the telescope – such as the local bodies of our the solar system starting with the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn (as first observed by Galileo in 1610) and eventually extending out to distant nebula, star clusters and galaxies. For the Transduction exhibition the Telescopic Eye: Aqua Optica was installed outside in a small quadrangle next to the Tech Bar and as the night drew darker it was able to also embody the lighting and other visual elements from the surrounding buildings and streets. The Aqua Optica system often encompasses such local lighting and images as a added layer to the video projection work. In this case (at night and outside at Federation Square) the extent of the layering was very successful and increased dramatically as the night became darker. This multi layering of images invokes (for the viewer) a connection between the immediate environment of the Federation square and cityscape with the vastly distant images of the cosmos. For me such a multilayered imaging represents how scientific instruments of observation can generate a complex and augmented visualisation of reality, one which has historically come to re-define our conception of the cosmos and our place in it both spatially and temporally.

Contemporary sociological approaches to spirituality

This chapter examines contemporary sociological definitions and approaches to the study of spirituality. It begins by examining how and when spirituality found its place in sociology, and then considers how sociologists have defined and studied spirituality in recent decades. A review of various definitions reveals that most sociologists understand that spirituality to involve experiences of ‘transcendence’ or ‘sacredness’. This can be religious or otherwise. Next, the chapter discusses sociological explanations for popularisation of the notion that people are increasingly ‘spiritual, but not religious’. It is argued that post-1960s social changes have led to the expansion of spiritual options outside the bounds of organised religion and that a reasonable proportion of people in the west might aptly be termed ‘spiritual seekers’. The chapter concludes with a discussion of further prospects for the sociological study of spirituality, and examines the view that there can be a ‘secular spirituality’. It is argued that there has been a paucity of study of the actions, activities and motivations of non-religious people and how this aligns with current understandings of spirituality.

The Buddhist Coleridge: Creating Space for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner within Buddhist Romantic Studies

The popularization of academic spaces that combine Buddhist philosophy with the literature of the Romantic period – a discipline I refer to as Buddhist Romantic Studies – have exposed the lack of scholarly attention Samuel Taylor Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner have received within such studies. Validating Coleridge’s right to exist within Buddhist Romantic spheres, my thesis argues that Coleridge was cognizant of Buddhism through historical and textual encounters. To create a space for The Rime within Buddhist Romantic Studies, my thesis provides an interpretation of the poem that centers on the concept of prajna, or wisdom, as a vital tool for cultivating the mind. Focusing on prajna, I argue that the Mariner’s didactic story traces his cognitive voyage from ignorance to enlightenment. By examining The Rime within the framework of Buddhism, readers will also be able to grasp the importance of cultivating the mind and transcending ignorance.

Enacting the violent imaginary : reflections on the dynamics of nonviolence and violence in Buddhism

In this paper, I explore the complex ethical dynamics of violence and nonviolence in Mahāyāna Buddhism by considering some of the historical precedents and scriptural prescriptions that inform modern and contemporary Buddhist acts of self-immolation. Through considering these scripturally sanctioned Mahāyāna ‘case studies,’ the paper traces the tension that exists in Buddhist thought between violence and nonviolence, outlines the interplay of key Mahāyāna ideas of transcendence and altruism, and comments on the mimetic status and influence of spiritually charged texts. It is the contention of this paper that violent scriptural metaphors can create paradigms of enactment that are paradoxically illustrative of the core ‘non-violent’ Mahāyāna virtues of compassion (karuṇā), giving (dāna), patience (kṣānti), and vigor (vīrya). The discussion will show that these virtues are underpinned by the Mahāyāna philosophical mainstays of non-duality (advayavāda), bodhisattvic transcendent altruism, skillful means (upāya), and dependent co-origination (pratītyasamutpāda).

Aproximaciones a mindfulness en la psicología contemporánea

Este trabajo es una revisión de literatura que abarca una selección de artículos disponibles en bases de datos especializadas y publicados en el periodo comprendido entre los años 2006 a 2016 para artículos científicos y entre los años 2000 a 2016 para libros. En total se revisaron: 1 tesis doctoral, 1 tesis magistral, 111 artículos y 9 libros o capítulos de libros. Se presentan diversas definiciones de mindfulness y formas de conceptualizarla, sus mecanismos de acción, sus enfoques psicoterapéuticos predominantes, los efectos de su práctica estable, sus principales campos de acción y la importancia de la formación de los docentes que imparten la práctica. Finalmente se presentan algunas conclusiones acerca del diálogo entre la literatura psicológica sobre mindfulness y algunas de las concepciones de la tradición budista en torno a la meditación.